Working Alone Limits Success

Implementing a new enterprise content management (ECM) solution is a complex and costly undertaking. You must train staff, attend trade shows, select from hundreds of products, and possibly hire consultants. After the solution is deployed you must then constantly solve everyday problems to support its operation. Even with substantial funding it is easy to miss opportunities and continued success is never assured.

Industry Wisdom: A Better Way to Solve Problems

At the ECMINSTITUTE we attempt to remove boundaries between organizations. Instead of struggling to solve problems internally, we help organizations look outward across the industry. We believe that a network of independent ECM professionals have the combined wisdom to look at problems with a unique perspective. They also are unconstrained by corporate culture, politics, or predispositions and in a much better position to uncover a diamond in the rough.

Our collective intelligence approach also saves organizations money. By routinely casting problems to our experts you reduce overhead costs for specialized training, off site meetings, and salaried consultants. The process also helps organizations arrive at solutions quicker than attempting to solve problems on their own.

What We Do

Idea Building Process

Our idea building process focuses on connecting organizations with industry experts through a series of both formal and informal peer reviews. Our guided process takes organizations from asking simple questions, to developing problem summaries, solution analysis, and requests for proposals. At discrete steps along the way we cast information to our experts for critical review and participation.


Peer Review - a specific feedback from industry experts on questions and problems.
Question - An informal request for a peer review.
Answer - The results of a peer review for a question.
Challenge - A formal request for a peer review. Challenges may include problem identification, analysis, solution resolution, and proposals.

We then capture this information, assimilate the results, and present the findings as the cornerstone of your solution. Our website manages the underlining business process by leveraging the latest in WEB 2.0 technology, bringing together aspects of social networking, collective intelligence, and crowdsourcing in a totally new way to manage and solve problems.

ECMHUB.com assign roles to website participates based on their activities.  Roles provide security controls and filtering capability to easily locate and notify users.  ECMHUB.com organizes participates in four distinct roles.

Seekers

Seekers represent website participates interested in either posting questions or challenges.  Seekers must be registered users of ECMHUB.com.  To submit questions or challenges, Seekers must register and log into the website and fill out the appropriate question or challenge form.  All questions and challenges must be approved by the webeditor prior to publication.  Seekers are not permitted to add answers to questions or post comments to challenges.

Seekers are automatically notified through email if someone responds to a question or challenge post.  A Seeker may disable this feature by specifying this option in each posting form.

Solvers

Solvers are website participates interested in responding to questions and challenges.  Participates become Solvers by registering and logging in at ECMHUB.com and filling out a Solver application profile form.  When the application form is approved by the webeditor, Solvers may then submit answers to questions and post comments to challenges. Each Solver must submit only one profile form.  One organization, however, my contribute any number of Solver participants with different profiles.  Solvers may also act as Seekers and are permitted to submit questions and challenges. 

In order for Solvers to automatically receive emails when questions and challenges are published to ECMHUB.com, they must subscribe to the Industry Questions or Industry Challenges service located Login Name > Manage Services.  As an alternative to email, Solvers can subscribe to the RSS feed available at the bottom of the question and challenge pages.

Facilitators

Facilitators are website participates who help both Seekers and Solvers.  Acting as an important liaison between each group, a Facilitator must be completely independent and cannot participate as either a Seeker or Solver. To become a Facilitator you must show proof of objectivity and contact the webeditor for additional information.    

Members

Seekers, Solvers, and Facilitators are all Members of the ECMINSTITUTE.  To become a Member of the ECMINSTITUTE you simply register at ECMHUB.com website.  Unlike other Trade Associations, our membership fees are based on a results-oriented business model  meaning you do not need to pay a fee until you start using our services.  These fees are further explained under the Costs tab above.

All Members can subscribe to the RSS feeds for automatic notification of new questions, challenges, news and events.

Questions > Problems > Solutions > Proposals

Our services follow a natural life cycle where initial questions inevitably lead to uncovering larger problems.  Problems are solved through a series of formal peer reviews where experts propose alternative solutions.  Proposals, in turn, are developed from solutions. Proposals outline the final pathway to resolving the original problem the initial questions uncovered.

Questions

A question is an informal request for a peer review. The ECMINSTITUTE manages questions to flush out underlining problems. As a member of the ECMINSTITUTE you may submit questions to our website forum on any topic related to content management. You may ask both private and public questions directly to individual Solvers or post public questions to the entire community of Solvers. Unlike traditional web forums, every question will be answered.

As an informal peer review, our Solvers are not obligated to either review or answer questions as they appear in our forum. If our Solvers do not immediately respond to your question the assigned Facilitator will suggest alternative resources to help you answer your question in a timely manner.

Challenges

If answers are not enough to solve your problem, you initiate a challenge. A challenge can be either a single event, or a series of interactive steps intended to improve problem definition and subsequent solution identification. Unlike questions, challenges have due dates and all Solvers are notified for formal peer review.

The ECMINSTITUTE manages challenges in the same way as questions only adding professional services as needed to support a more formalized problem resolution process.  The ECMINSTITUTE offers both full and minimum service approaches to fit the requirements of any challenge. 

        Problem Summary Development

Following a full service approach, our first goal is to develop a clear and concise problem summary statement. During problem analysis, we will closely work with you to define your problem in detail. We will develop a problem summary in such a way that our Solvers will readily assimilate and provide feedback. After we cast the problem summary to the Solvers, we then explore additional options, incorporating their comments into the final document.

        Solution Summary Development

With the problem fully defined, the next step is to explore possible solutions. During this step we will rely heavily on the guidance and direction from the Solvers. During analysis we will sponsor activities to promote rapid solution identification. Organized activities may include site visits, online product demonstration, and organized knowledge transfer sessions. At the end of the analysis we will develop a solution summary document for formal review by the Solvers. With expert feedback we will then explore any remaining options, incorporating the Solvers comments into the final solution summary document.

        Request for Proposal Development

Anytime during the challenge process you may issue a request for proposal (RFP). A RFP request specifically asks the Solvers to provide a written proposal outlining a solution for a given fee. You select the winning proposal contributed by the participating Solvers. The RFP may be structured for either a fixed price or variable cost solution. You may either work directly with the ECMINSTITUTE to develop a RFP or create it on your own. Keep in mind, if you have already developed an RFP without the Solvers participation, you may need to revisit your initial assumptions and possibly explore alternative solutions suggested by the Solvers.

One popular technique in collective intelligence is to make the RFP process a “contest” where the winner takes the cash “prize” in a fixed fee cash award. Proposing a RFP contest is best for brainstorming ideas but may not be suitable for comprehensive ECM implementations. When you are closer to submitting a challenge, the ECMINSTITUTE will work with you to decide the best approach to take.

The ECMINSTITUTE follows a results-oriented business model  meaning you never have to pay a fee until you start receiving tangible benefits from using our services. 

Membership Benefit Fee  

As an association, we only ask for a Membership Benefit Fee when the received service benefits exceeds a value of $275. A service benefit may include one or more detailed answers to posted questions, advertisement space on our website, or professional service work.  Posting a question, comment, or feedback of any kind is always free. 

Solver Benefit Fee

Solvers do not pay a Solver Benefit Fee until they win a challenge.  When Solver(s) wins a challenge, the ECMINSTITUTE will charge the Solver's parent organization(s) an annual Solver Benefit Fee of $1,250.  

Seeker Benefit Fee

Seekers who submit challenges must pay both for professional services and a challenge posting fee.  These fees are calculated based on the anticipated scope and administration requirements for each challenge. The fees may range anywhere from zero to several thousand dollars. To receive a personalize quotation for your challenge, please register at ECMHUB.com and post a question to the webeditor summarizing your challenge.  During the registration process please make sure to include a contact telephone number.